PSYC 100 Final Exam Study Guide PDF

This is a study guide for the PSYC 100 final. Please recall that one of the learning objectives for this course is application of psychological concepts and theories to real-world examples. Therefore, you should be prepared not only to define and explain what the terms and concepts below mean, but a...

This is a study guide for the PSYC 100 final. Please recall that one of the learning objectives for this course is application of psychological concepts and theories to real-world examples. Therefore, you should be prepared not only to define and explain what the terms and concepts below mean, but also 1) spot examples of these concepts, and 2) generate your own examples. I recommend using this guide to test yourself. That is, you should attempt to answer these questions from memory; then, compare your answers to your notes. This will help you identify gaps in your knowledge and the areas you should focus on for further study. The final is cumulative, meaning that you will be tested on all of the material presented in this course. However, there will be a heavier focus on material covered after the second midterm (i.e., there are generally more questions per unit for the last three units than questions per unit for the other units). I have tried to keep the distribution fairly balanced, but it does depend on how much time we spent on certain units in class (e.g., there are more questions for the Psychological Disorders and Therapy unit than for Stress and Health). I have made some clarifications for the units that appeared on the previous study guides; these changes are printed in red. Good luck! Unit 1 | Introduction Reading: Chapter 1 1. Provide definitions of psychology, mind, and behaviour 2. Define social cognition 3. Explain what is meant by folk psychology theories, where these theories come from, and how folk psychology differs from the scientific approach taken by psychologists 4. Explain the limitations of personal experience and intuition for understanding human psychology a. Define inattentional blindness and illusion of attention b. Define confirmation bias and explain how it is related to belief perseverance c. Discuss examples of subtle contextual factors that can drive behaviour without us realizing it 5. Define misattribution of arousal 6. Explain what a replication study is, and why it’s important 7. Explain what it means for psychology to be a “summative” science 8. Identify (in broad terms) the different areas of psychology (e.g., biological- neuroscience, evolutionary, cultural, social, clinical, etc.), and what perspective they take/what they focus on 9. Explain how we can use critical thinking to evaluate claims 10. Describe research-based strategies for effective studying 1 Unit 2 | Research Methods Reading: Chapter 2 1. Summarize what the scientific method entails a. Define the following terms: theory, hypothesis, data b. Distinguish between a theory and a hypothesis 2. Explain what a replication study is and why it’s important 3. Explain what the open science movement is; what is the ultimate goal of this movement? 4. Define meta-analysis 5. Explain what it means for a paper to be peer-reviewed 6. Define variable a. Distinguish between measured and manipulated variables 7. Explain what an operational definition is 8. Explain what a self-report measure is a. What are the advantages and disadvantages of this approach? i. Define social desirability bias 9. Explain what behavioural observation is a. What are the advantages and disadvantages of this approach? i. Define reactivity 10. Explain what indirect measures are; give an example a. What are the advantages and disadvantages of this approach? 11. Distinguish between the population of interest and a sample 12. Explain what a random sample is and why it is important a. When is non-random sampling particularly likely to be misleading? 13. Explain what descriptive research is 14. What is a case study? 15. What is correlational research? 16. Be able to interpret the strength and directionality of a relationship from a scatterplot 17. Be able to interpret the strength and directionality of a relationship from the correlation coefficient 18. Explain why correlations do not prove causation a. What are the three criteria that must be met to establish causation? 19. Explain why experiments can establish causation while correlational designs cannot 20. Distinguish between an independent variable and dependent variable 21. Define random assignment and explain why it’s so important 22. Explain what a control group is and why it is important 23. Distinguish between a mediator and a moderator 24. Describe the three types of validity 25. Compare measurement validity and reliability; be prepared to identify examples 26. Explain what a confound is; be prepared to identify examples 27. Explain what a placebo effect is 28. Explain what is meant by double-blind procedures in the context of an experiment, and why this procedure may be used 29. What is internal validity?; identify and describe factors that threaten internal validity 30. Explain what differential attrition is and why it might pose a problem 31. Define external validity; make sure you are able to distinguish between internal validity and external validity 32. Explain what an effect size is 33. Explain the logic of null hypothesis testing and what it means for a finding to be statistically significant a. Explain what a p-value is b. Identify the factors affecting the size of the p-value 34. Identify and describe the three measures of central tendency 2 35. Distinguish between a data set’s average score and its variability 36. Explain what is meant by descriptive statistics and define the following terms outlined in your book: a. Frequency distribution b. Mean c. Median d. Mode e. Standard deviation 37. Explain the function of an Institutional Review Board 38. Identify and describe the three ethical principles guiding evaluation of research proposals; be prepared to identify possible violations of these principles a. Define informed consent and explain why it’s important b. Explain why deception is a potential violation of the autonomy principle, and what can be done to minimize its negative impact c. Describe the factors that IRBs consider in their evaluation of research proposals 39. What are the three guiding principles for conducting research with non-human animal subjects? 3 Unit 3 | Genetics & Evolutionary Foundations of Behaviour Reading: Chapter 3 1. Define the following terms: genome, DNA, chromosome 2. Define and distinguish between gene and allele a. Explain what it means for an allele to be dominant or recessive 3. Define and distinguish between genotype and phenotype a. Explain what is meant by homozygous vs heterozygous genotype 4. Discuss how genes affect behaviour 5. Explain the ways in which genes and environment interact; be prepared to give examples 6. What is a candidate gene study? a. What are the limitations of this approach? 7. What does it mean to knock down or knock out a gene? How does that help us understand the gene’s effects? Summarize the example discussed in class 8. What are genome-wide association studies? a. What are the limitations of this approach? 9. Describe and contrast the diathesis-stress and differential susceptibility models 10. Define gene expression and describe some of the factors that can influence gene expression 11. Explain what is meant by epigenetic change; provide one example used in class 12. Summarize research on epigenetic changes occurring in response to differences in maternal care in rats 13. Define behavioural genetics and heritability a. Be able to interpret heritability estimates 14. Explain how twin studies can help us study the heritability of certain traits or psychological disorders a. What are the limitations of these approaches? 15. Distinguish between artificial selection and natural selection 16. Identify and explain the three components that contribute to evolution by natural selection 17. Define the following terms: adaptation, differential fitness 18. What is functionalism? 19. Distinguish between distal and proximate explanations of behaviour 20. What is the need to belong and why did it emerge? 4 Unit 4 | The Biological Bases of Behaviour Reading: Chapter 3 1. Identify the three basic types of neurons 2. Describe the basic structure of neurons 3. Explain how the myelin sheath and glial cells support neuronal functioning 4. Explain how neurons communicate with each other a. Terms you should be able to explain: action potential, cell membrane, intracellular fluid, extracellular fluid, resting potential, ion channels, depolarization, voltage threshold, repolarization, refractory period, synaptic cleft, neurotransmitter, receptor b. You should be able to explain, in broad terms, how action potentials are generated and propagated within the neuron and how this electrical signal is converted into a chemical signal for cross-synaptic communication between neurons 5. Explain how neurotransmitters get removed from the synaptic cleft 6. Define and contrast excitatory and inhibitory signals 7. Explain the functions of GABA, acetylcholine, norepinephrine, serotonin, dopamine, and endorphins 8. What are psychoactive drugs? 9. Distinguish between an agonist and antagonist 10. Explain which endogenous system opioid drugs act on, and why they are so addictive 11. Define nerve and nervous system 12. Identify the subdivisions of the nervous system and their functions 13. Identify the parts of your nervous system that are and are not under conscious control; describe their functions 14. Explain what the endocrine system is 15. Describe the role of the pituitary gland 16. Explain what oxytocin is and the role it is thought to play in social behaviour 17. Explain what a spinal reflex is 18. Describe the functions of the pons, medulla oblongata, reticular formation, and cerebellum 19. Identify the major regions of the limbic system and their functions 20. What is Capgras syndrome? 21. Identify the lobes of the cerebral cortex and identify their functions (in broad terms) 22. Explain what it means for the primary somatosensory and motor cortices to be topographically organized a. Explain what determines the amount of space devoted to representing a particular body part in these regions 23. Describe the difference between primary and association cortex 24. Explain how the two brain hemispheres communicate 25. Explain what is meant by contralateral organization 26. Explain what is meant by lateralization; describe how certain language capacities serve as an example 27. Explain how experiments with split-brain patients can further our understanding of lateralization of function a. Be prepared to make predictions about how a split-brain patient may respond to a particular pattern of visual or tactile stimulation 28. Distinguish between Broca’s area and Wernicke’s area 29. Describe the different types of approaches taken for studying the brain, including their advantages and limitations 30. What is neural plasticity? What are some examples discussed in class and the textbook? 31. What is phantom limb syndrome and what is it an example of? 32. What is a critical period? Give an example. 5 Unit 5 | Sensation & Perception Reading: Chapter 4 1. Define colour constancy 2. Define stimulus, sensation, transduction, and perception 3. Distinguish between bottom-up and top-down processing 4. Define psychophysics 5. Explain what the absolute threshold of awareness is a. What is the relationship between the absolute threshold and sensitivity? 6. Explain signal detection theory, and be prepared to apply it to examples a. Distinguish between liberal and conservative bias 7. Define just-noticeable difference 8. Define Weber’s law/Weber’s fraction and be prepared to apply it to examples (I won’t make you do complicated math, but you should understand the basic principle) 9. Explain what adaptation is, and identify the benefits of sensory and perceptual adaptation 10. Describe the properties of light 11. Identify and explain the functions of the eye’s major structures 12. Explain the difference between the two kinds of photoreceptor cells: cones and rods 13. Explain (in broad terms) the process of visual transduction 14. Explain the process by which light/dark adaptation works a. Explain what rhodopsin is 15. Describe the property of cones that allows colour vision 16. Explain what the trichromatic theory of colour vision is 17. Explain what the opponent-process theory of colour vision is 18. Explain why the visual system is described as “hierarchical” 19. Explain how visual information travels from the eyes to the brain 20. Define feature detectors 21. Define visual association cortex 22. Define visual agnosia and prosopagnosia 23. Identify the “what” and “where” pathways of visual processing (i.e., the ventral and dorsal pathways) a. What deficits may we expect to see in response to damage in these areas? 24. What is Gestalt psychology? a. What are the Gestalt principles for organizing visual data and recognizing objects? b. What do reversible figures demonstrate? c. What are illusory contours, and how are they an example of top-down processing? 25. Explain how both binocular and monocular cues are used for depth perception 26. Explain how the brain maintains perceptual stability despite sensory variability (i.e., explain size constancy and colour constancy; be prepared to identify examples) 27. Describe (in broad terms) the functions of the components of the ear 28. Identify the two different ways we perceive pitch a. Contrast place theory and frequency theory 29. Explain how our two ears help us localize sound; what information does the brain use to identify where sound is coming from? 30. Identify the receptors that give rise to tactile sensations a. What property of these receptors allow us to make fine-grained discriminations when touching objects or being touched? 31. Explain where and how touch sensations received throughout the body are organized in the brain 32. Define tactile agnosia and identify brain regions that which may be damaged in an individual with this condition 6 33. Explain what is special about skin receptors specialized for social touch 34. Define interoception; explain the role the insula plays in this process and the links between interoception and emotion 35. Define proprioception 36. Describe how the vestibular system works; explain how the vestibular and visual systems work together and how conflict between the vestibular and visual systems can create motion sickness 37. Explain why olfaction is important 38. Describe the transduction of olfactory stimuli 39. Explain why smells are often linked to emotions and memories 40. Explain why smell contributes to perception of flavour 41. Summarize individual differences in olfaction 42. Identify the evolutionary purpose of our sense of taste 43. Explain how transduction of gustatory stimuli works 44. Describe where taste information is processed in the brain 45. Explain what the McGurk effect is and why it happens (i.e., visual dominance) 46. Describe the rubber hand illusion 47. Explain how sensory systems interact to create full perceptions of the world (sensory integration) 48. Explain how our pre-existing knowledge, expectations, and motivations shape perception 7 Unit 6 | Learning Reading: Chapter 6 1. Define learning 2. Differentiate between nonassociative learning and associative learning 3. Define habituation, dishabituation, and sensitization; be prepared to apply to examples 4. Describe the dual-process theory of nonassociative learning; be prepared to apply to examples 5. Differentiate between classical conditioning and operant conditioning 6. Describe classical conditioning; define unconditioned stimulus, unconditioned response, conditioned stimulus, and conditioned response—be prepared to apply to examples 7. Define acquisition, extinction, and spontaneous recovery 8. Define and differentiate between generalization and discrimination; be prepared to apply to examples 9. Define and differentiate between contiguity and contingency a. Is contiguity sufficient to produce conditioning? 10. Describe blocking; be prepared to apply to examples a. Explain why blocking occurs b. What psychological disorder has been linked to deficits in blocking? 11. Describe the “Little Albert” study 12. Define countercounditioning 13. Describe the neural substrates of fear conditioning discussed in class 14. Explain the adaptive value of classical conditioning 15. Define drug tolerance a. Explain the role that conditioning may play in drug overdoses 16. Explain the concept of preparedness; be prepared to apply to real-life examples 17. Describe operant conditioning and the “ABCs” of operant conditioning 18. Describe the law of effect 19. Differentiate between reinforcement and punishment, and the terms positive and negative in reference to reinforcement and punishment; be prepared to apply to examples 20. Differentiate between primary and secondary reinforcers 21. Define shaping; be prepared to apply to examples 22. Define instinctive drift; be prepared to apply to examples 23. Define immediate reinforcement, delayed reinforcement and delay discounting; be prepared to apply to examples 24. Define and contrast continuous reinforcement and partial reinforcement schedules 25. Identify, describe, and contrast the different kinds of partial reinforcement schedules; be prepared to apply to real-life examples a. Make sure you can identify the patterns of responding you expect to see with each type of schedule; which schedules are more resistant to extinction (and why)? 26. Differentiate between contingent and noncontingent reinforcement 27. Describe superstitious conditioning; when does it occur? 28. What is latent learning? How does it differ from conditioning? 29. What is observational learning and why is it advantageous? 30. Describe social learning theory a. What are the components of social learning? b. What does the “Bobo Doll” study show? 31. What do mirror neurons respond to? 32. Define cultural transmission and compare vertical transmission to horizontal transmission 33. What is insight learning? 34. What is a diffusion chain? 8 Unit 7 | Consciousness Reading: Chapter 5 1. Define consciousness 2. Describe the challenges of studying consciousness a. Define synesthesia and explain how this phenomenon illustrates one of the challenges of studying consciousness 3. Differentiate between awareness and arousal 4. What is self-awareness? 5. What is the spotlight effect? 6. Give examples of studies illustrating that awareness is limited 7. Define inattentional blindness and change blindness 8. What is mind wandering and perceptual decoupling? a. Describe the costs and benefits of mind wandering b. Summarize the findings of the study on mind wandering discussed in the text and lecture; how do people’s levels happiness during mind wandering about unpleasant or neutral topics compare to their levels of happiness when focusing on their current activity? What about mind wandering about pleasant topics? 9. Define automaticity and explain its role in mind wandering 10. Describe the three levels of the mind according to Freud (i.e., conscious, preconscious, and dynamic unconscious) 11. Contrast how Freud thought about the relationship of the conscious mind and unconscious mind with how modern psychological scientists think about this relationship 12. Define cocktail party phenomenon a. How has this phenomenon been studied in the lab? What aspects of a message are participants most likely to notice in these studies? b. What does it illustrate about the structure of our minds? 13. Define subliminal perception a. Describe the Kunst-Wilson & Zajonc, 1980 irregular shapes study that provides one example of subliminal perception 14. Identify the brain regions involved in regulating arousal 15. What is spatial hemi-neglect? 16. What is the global workspace hypothesis? a. What insight has been gleaned from EEG studies into the nature of conscious awareness? 17. What is the default mode network, and when is it most active? a. What is locked-in syndrome and how does it relate to DMN activity? 18. Define circadian rhythm and zeitgeiber 19. Describe the biological mechanisms that regulate the sleep-wake cycle a. Identify the environmental factors that influence the circadian rhythm 20. Describe the characteristic patterns of brain activity during awakening and the different stages of sleep 21. Describe the characteristics of REM sleep; why is it sometimes referred to as “paradoxical sleep”? a. What is REM behaviour disorder and why does it occur? 22. Describe the effects of sleep deprivation and the functions of sleep a. What is REM rebound? 23. Describe some theories about why we dream a. What was Freud’s theory of dreaming? What is the difference between the manifest and the latent content of a dream? b. What benefits of dreaming have been observed in research? c. Describe the activation-synthesis hypothesis 24. Explain what depressants are a. What is alcohol myopia? 25. Explain what stimulants are 9 26. Explain what hallucinogens are a. What neurotransmitter are hallucinogens chemically similar to? 27. Define hypnosis and hypnotic analgesia 10 Unit 8 | Memory Reading: Chapter 7 1. Define memory 2. What are the three stages of memory? 3. Describe the multistore model of memory 4. Describe sensory memory a. What are iconic and echoic memory? 5. Describe short-term memory 6. What is chunking? 7. Describe working memory a. Define the following terms: phonological loop, rehearsal, visuo-spatial sketchpad, central executive 8. Describe long-term memory 9. Define serial position curve, recency effect, and primacy effect a. What explains the recency and primacy effects? What does this tell us about short-term and long-term memory? 10. Differentiate between anterograde amnesia and retrograde amnesia; be prepared to apply to examples 11. Describe levels of processing theory a. Differentiate between shallow and deep encoding b. Define elaboration, semantic encoding, and self-referential encoding c. Rank different forms of encoding discussed in class and the text in terms of effectiveness 12. What do the memory impairments seen in HM and other patients with hippocampus damage teach us about the nature of memory? 13. Differentiate between explicit and implicit memory 14. Define procedural memory and identify whether it is implicit or explicit; be prepared to provide examples 15. Define priming and identify whether it is implicit or explicit 16. Differentiate between retrospective and prospective memory 17. Differentiate between episodic and semantic memory; be prepared to apply to examples 18. Define affective conditioning and identify whether it is implicit or explicit 19. Describe the main principle of Hebbian learning 20. Describe long-term potentiation and the role that CREB plays in this process 21. Define memory consolidation and identify when it occurs 22. Define memory reconsolidation and identify when it occurs 23. Describe the spreading activation model of memory a. What is a retrieval cue? b. Differentiate between free recall and cued recall 24. Differentiate between retroactive interference and proactive interference; be prepared to apply to examples 25. Define encoding specificity principle, state-dependent retrieval, and mood- dependent retrieval; be prepared to apply to examples 26. What is an encoding failure? What is the weapons focus effect? How are these two concepts related? 27. Explain the role that physiological arousal plays in emotional memory; what is the research evidence to support this idea? a. What role does the amygdala play in memory? 28. What is a flashbulb memory? What is unique about this type of memory? a. Why are these memories not always accurate? 29. Explain what it means for memory to be constructive a. Provide examples of studies illustrating the constructive nature of memory 30. Define misinformation effect 31. Define source memory, source amnesia, source monitoring, reality monitoring, and imagination inflation; be prepared to apply to examples 11 32. Differentiate between gist and verbatim memory 33. What is the Deese-Roediger-McDermott false memory paradigm and what does it tell us about the nature of memory? 12 Unit 9 | Motivation & Emotion Reading: Chapter 9 1. Define motive 2. Define instinct 3. Explain what homeostasis is 4. Explain the drive-reduction theory of motivation; be prepared to apply this theory to real-world examples 5. Explain the value of pain 6. Distinguish between the sensory and affective components of pain 7. Explain how the pain matrix may contribute to the regulation of different kinds of motivated behaviour 8. Explain how the term reward is used in the psychology literature 9. Explain how wanting and liking are different, dissociable constructs 10. What is alliesthesia? 11. Describe the interconnection between pain and reward processes 12. Describe the behavioural perspective on love and attachment 13. Explain the contribution Harry Harlow made to the understanding of attachment a. How does his understanding of attachment differ from that held by behaviourists? How does his research support his ideas? 14. Summarize John Bowlby’s attachment theory 15. Describe the brain opioid theory of attachment 16. Explain the glucostatic and lipostatic hypotheses of hunger regulation; explain why the body might have multiple regulatory systems to ensure that we eat 17. Explain the role the hypothalamus plays in regulating appetite a. Summarize dual-center theory and identify the regions of the hypothalamus responsible for promoting and suppressing feeding 18. Describe the role that psychological factors play in regulating eating behaviours 19. What is estrus? 20. What is the relationship between the attachment and sexual systems in humans? From an evolutionary perspective, why might these systems be interconnected? 21. What is concealed ovulation? 22. Summarize research evidence for “leaky” cues of ovulation in humans 23. Summarize the role that estrogen/estradiol and testosterone play in regulating sexuality 24. What is achievement motivation? 25. Differentiate between approach and avoidance motivation 26. Differentiate between performance and mastery orientation 27. Differentiate between a fixed vs. growth mindset a. What are the consequences of these mindsets? 28. Describe Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (identifying and ordering the different levels) 29. Describe what it means for motives to be hierarchically organized 30. Define emotion; what are its three components? 31. Explain and contrast the James-Lange, Cannon-Bard, and Schachter-Singer theories of emotion; be prepared to apply these theories to real-world examples 32. What is misattribution of arousal? 33. What are appraisals? How do they shape emotions? 34. Define emotional granularity and alexithymia 35. What is the functionalist view of emotions? 36. Describe the functions of emotions a. Describe the functional value of fear and shame, but also be prepared to identify functional value of other emotions b. What are proinflammatory cytokines? How are they related to shame? c. What is meant by affect-as-information? 37. Summarize the support for the evolutionary perspective on emotions, including the following: 13  a. Cross-cultural research on emotional expression b. Emotional expression in other animals c. Emotional expression among the blind 38. Explain how contextual factors contribute to interpretation of facial expressions (see text) 39. Describe the ways in which emotional expression varies across cultures, including: a. Focal emotions b. Display rules 40. Define emotion regulation; recognize that emotion regulation can take place at different stages of anticipating or experiencing an emotion a. Describe the different emotional regulation strategies; be prepared to apply to examples 41. Identify the consequences of suppressing versus reappraising our emotions 42. What is self-control? 43. Describe the strength model of ego control a. What evidence supports this model? What evidence contradicts it? 44. Describe the three factors that influence happiness levels 45. Define affective forecasting and describe the biases and other factors that contribute to inaccurate affective forecasts (describe research examples where applicable) a. Immune neglect b. Focalism c. Consequences of making higher-level vs. lower levels construals (construal-level theory) 46. Explain the concept of the hedonic treadmill and adaptation 47. Describe some examples of intentional activities individuals may pursue to boost their happiness 14 Unit 10 | Social Psychology Reading: Chapter 15 1. Define social psychology; what are the “big ideas” in social psychology? 2. What is obedience? Describe how events of the 20th century galvanized research on obedience 3. Describe Stanley Milgram’s experiment and his findings; what was the significance of his findings? 4. What were the factors driving obedience in the Milgram experiment? a. Summarize how varying the immediacy of the victim and the immediacy and power of the experimenter influenced the degree of obedience in the study 5. What is conformity? a. What are the benefits and costs of conformity? 6. Define automatic mimicry a. What role does it play in social interactions? b. Define empathy 7. Distinguish between normative and informational social influence a. Summarize research that demonstrates these two types of social influence b. When are we most likely to be susceptible to informational social influence? To normative social influence? c. What is internalization? Which type of influence is more likely to lead to internalization? 8. Define attitudes and describe their three components 9. Describe and compare the two systems involved in cognition 10. Describe the elaboration likelihood model a. Differentiate between the central and peripheral routes to attitude change b. Identify factors that make it more likely that the central vs peripheral route will be engaged c. Identify the types of persuasive techniques that are more effective for central vs. peripheral route processing 11. What is need for cognition? How does it relate to persuasion? 12. What is compliance? 13. What is the norm of reciprocity and how is it related to the door-in-the-face technique? 14. What is the foot-in-the-door technique? a. Why does it work? 15. Summarize the research discussed in class and in the text on first impressions 16. Describe the two dimensions along which faces are thought to be evaluated a. What emotional/behavioural reactions do individuals who fall in the different quadrants evoke? b. Why are we attuned to baby faces? 17. Define and compare bottom-up and top-down processing 18. Define schemas; explain how they guide information processing a. What are person schemas? What is transference? b. What are event schemas? c. How do they shape first impressions? 19. What are stereotypes? a. Explain how stereotypes can lead to inaccurate and biased assessments of individuals b. Explain why we might rely on stereotypes 20. What are self-fulfilling prophecies? 21. Define attribution and distinguish between internal/dispositional and external attributions 22. Define fundamental attribution error; be prepared to apply to examples 23. What are self-serving attributions/bias? Be prepared to apply to examples 15 24. Summarize the factors that may lead to erroneous social judgments 25. What is impression management? a. What are the different impression management strategies? 26. What is the false consensus effect 27. What is the link between attitudes and behaviour? 28. Summarize cognitive dissonance theory; be prepared to apply to real life examples 29. What are the various ways in which we may attempt to reduce cognitive dissonance? 30. What is confirmation bias? Give a research example 31. What is effort justification and how is it related to cognitive dissonance? a. What are some real world examples of this? b. What is the Ikea effect? 32. Why do certain decisions create dissonance? Which kinds of decisions are most likely to create dissonance? How do individuals cope with the resulting dissonance? a. Define spreading the alternatives 33. What is insufficient justification and how does it relate to dissonance? 34. Describe how the Festinger & Carlsmith (1959) illustrates the concept of cognitive dissonance 35. Define group polarization a. What are two factors that may contribute to group polarization? 36. Define groupthink and identify factors that make it more or less likely 37. What is the bystander effect? a. What are the stages of the decision-making model of helping and how does the presence of bystanders impede helping at each step? b. What is pluralistic ignorance and how may it contribute to the decision to not help in an emergency? c. What is diffusion of responsibility? 16 Unit 11 | Personality Reading: Chapter 12 1. Define personality 2. Describe the psychodynamic view of personality a. What are defense mechanisms? b. Identify and describe the three components of personality according to Freud; be prepared to apply to examples 3. What are the critiques of Freud’s theory? What are its contributions? 4. What are traits? What is the trait approach to personality? a. Explain what is meant by functionally equivalent situations and how traits can lead to consistent behaviour in different contexts 5. Explain the lexical hypothesis and the role it played in personality research 6. Describe (in broad terms) what factor analysis is. What is it used for? 7. Identify and define the five factors of the five-factor model (the Big Five); be prepared to apply to examples 8. Explain how we should interpret estimates of heritability 9. Explain how researchers study heritability a. Explain the logic behind twin studies and be prepared to interpret results from twin studies 10. Describe social cognitive critiques of the trait approach 11. Describe how psychologists resolved the conflict between trait and situational influences on behaviour a. Explain what is meant by person x situation interaction; be prepared to identify examples 12. Define rejection sensitivity and describe how research on this trait provides an example of person x situation interactions 13. Define reciprocal determinism 14. Describe and differentiate between secure, anxious, and avoidant attachment (see also Chapter 15) a. Describe the social cognitive view of attachment 15. Explain what the self-concept is and how individuals are thought to develop their self-concepts a. What are reflected appraisals? b. What is self-perception theory? c. What are social comparisons 16. Define self-esteem 17. What is self-enhancement motivation? a. Describe the ways in which we maintain a positive self-view 18. What is self-verification theory 19. Describe sociometer theory 20. Define narcissism 21. Define and compare collectivism and individualism; interdependent and independent self-construals 17 Unit 12 | Psychological Disorders and Treatment Reading: Chapters 13 and 14 1. Differentiate between point prevalence and lifetime prevalence 2. Describe the challenges of determining what constitutes a “psychological disorder” 3. What is ADHD? Why is the recent increase in ADHD diagnoses considered controversial? 4. Identify the typical components of a clinical assessment a. Describe the techniques clinicians use to diagnose psychological disorders 5. Describe the diathesis-stress model; be prepared to apply to examples 6. Define comorbidity 7. Define concordance rate 8. Define specific phobia; provide examples a. Identify the factors thought to contribute to the development of a phobia 9. Identify the central fear of individuals with social anxiety disorder 10. Define panic disorder 11. Explain why agoraphobia often accompanies panic disorder 12. Explain what distinguishes generalized anxiety disorder from other anxiety disorders (e.g., specific phobias) 13. Describe some predisposing factors and causes that may play a role in generalized anxiety disorder 14. Define obsessive compulsive disorder, obsession, and compulsion 15. Identify the kinds of events that may contribute to development of post- traumatic stress disorder; what factors render individuals more vulnerable to developing PTSD? 16. Describe major depressive disorder a. What is anhedonia? 17. Describe some predisposing factors and causes that may play a role in major depressive disorder a. What explanatory style characterizes individuals predisposed to developing MDD? 18. Identify and describe the two components of bipolar disorder 19. Define schizophrenia 20. Differentiate between and describe the positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia; identify and describe the different kinds of positive and negative symptoms discussed in class a. What is the difference between hallucinations and delusions? 21. Describe the dopamine hypothesis of schizophrenia and the lines of evidence that provide support for this hypothesis 22. Describe the factors thought to increase risk of developing schizophrenia 23. What are personality disorders? a. Describe the characteristics of antisocial personality disorder 24. Define dissociative identity disorder 25. Define and describe the use of the psychoanalytic elements of free association, resistance, interpretation, and transference 26. Describe how modern psychodynamic therapy differs from Freud’s approach 27. Explain how the humanistic approach to therapy differs from psychoanalysis and psychodynamic theory 28. Describe how behavioral therapists use classical and operant conditioning principles a. Specifically, define and describe exposure therapy, systematic desensitization, token economy, and shaping (as it applies in this context) 32. Describe how behavioral therapists use modeling in their therapy interventions 33. Describe the characteristics of cognitive therapy 34. Identify the three types of dysfunctional beliefs that comprise the negative cognitive triad 18  a. Identify and define the distorted thought processes that support these dysfunctional beliefs; be prepared to apply to examples b. Define cognitive restructuring 35. Describe cognitive-behavioural therapy; what are its characteristics? 36. Describe how third-wave therapies like acceptance and commitment therapy differ from earlier CBT approaches 37. Describe the challenges of evaluating the effectiveness of therapies a. What is regression to the mean? 38. Identify the common factors thought to underlie the effectiveness of different kinds of therapy a. Define therapeutic alliance 19 Unit 13 | Stress & Health Reading: Chapter 10 1. Contrast the biomedical and biopsychosocial models of health & disease 2. Explain why zebras don’t get ulcers (and other stress-related diseases) while we do a. Define rumination and explain why it can be a problem 3. Explain how Hans Selye’s work contributed to understanding of stress 4. Describe the neural and physiological pathways underlying the stress response a. Identify the neural regions (discussed in class) that serve as a neural alarm system and project (send their signals) to the hypothalamus b. Describe the role the hypothalamus plays in the stress response c. Outline the sympathetic nervous system pathway and how it enables organisms to deal with stressors d. Describe the role of the parasympathetic nervous system e. Outline the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis pathway and how it enables organisms to deal with stressors; what is the end product of HPA axis activation? 5. Define allostatic load; outline the effects of chronic/prolonged stress on the cardiovascular and immune systems 6. Describe the two factors that have been identified as the key ingredients of events that people find stressful a. Describe the Trier Social Stress Test and explain how it utilizes these two ingredients 7. Describe stress appraisal theory a. Describe and distinguish between primary and secondary stress appraisals b. Identify situations where perceived stress is likely to be high 8. What are the different cardiovascular signatures of challenge vs. threat reactivity? 9. Distinguish between physical/objective social isolation and subjective sense of social isolation/loneliness a. Explain how they relate to health 10. Explain why loneliness may be related to negative health outcomes 11. Define social support and explain how it relates to health 20